Monthly Archives: "February 2015"

Do you ever feel like you are talking on your blog, but no one is listening?

It happens to many budding entrepreneurs. You suddenly think of a great post topic, write it up, and publish it. Then, it just sits there with minimal views and no comments until you think of another post topic.

“It’s a waste of time to haphazardly throw some content up on a blog and cross your fingers,” says freelance business author KeriLynn Engel. Engel has provided top notch content marketing services to a variety of companies, including WP Superstars, Twtrland, and Who is Hosting This.

With a little thought and planning, you can offer content that attracts an audience, resonates with readers, and converts potential customers.

What is your goal?

Take a step back from the keyboard and identify why you write and publish content. The answer is probably to grow your business.

What is your objective?

Next, identify specific objectives, or milestones, to pursue. For example, an objective may be to increase sales of your new product in a particular market segment or to grow your list of email subscribers.

What is your strategy?

With your objective in mind, craft a strategy that thoughtfully includes and schedules the topics needed to achieve it.

For example, if you want to increase sales of your bowties in the young bachelor market segment, your strategy will need to include perfecting the messaging for this market segment and identifying the best locations or channels to distribute your content.

How will you measure success?

There are many ways to execute your strategy, and it is important to spend time on things that accomplish your objective. To determine whether your strategy is a success, you need a goal.

According to Engel, “My #1 tip for small business owners who are trying to execute a content marketing strategy would be to set measurable goals and track your progress. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-specific) and track and review your progress so you know how to best use your time and resources.”

For example, your goal could be to increase sales by 10% within one month of the launch of your content marketing strategy. Let’s say you try two types of messaging in your content marketing, technical and emotional, and you publish them on various websites.

Your technical content focuses on the quality of the material used for your bowties, while your emotional content focuses on the ability to express oneself through fashion.

Using analytics tools like Google Analytics (this is free, by the way), you learn that young men who read the technical articles are more likely to order a bowtie than those who read the emotional articles. You can then conclude that you need to write more technical articles and fewer emotional articles.

Repeat.

Continue to learn what works best and do more of it.

By refining your strategy and tactics in this way, you are more likely to accomplish your objective and achieve your goal.

It is hard not to feel a twinge of resentment when you receive that first customer complaint. You devoted time, money, and other resources into building your baby and here comes this person pointing out its flaws. Yet, this is no time to dwell on your emotions. You’ve been presented with a valuable opportunity, and with the right response, you can turn this complaint into profit.

If you start with the belief that a complaint is feedback from someone in your target market, recognizing the complaint’s value becomes easy. Companies pay lots of money to gather market feedback and here you have it fall right in your lap.

It is easy to dismiss the complaint as wrong or irrelevant, but instead ask yourself how you can use it to improve your business. From there, validate your answer with others in the market and, if applicable, implement it.

For example, the complaint could indicate that:

You aren’t solving a pressing market problem.

Customers only see value in a solution that solves a problem they experience. If your target market isn’t experiencing the problem you are solving, the problem isn’t that big of a deal, or you aren’t solving it very well, go back to the drawing board. Change or improve your solution to better solve a pressing market problem and you’ll be more likely to see customers pay for your product or service.

Your messaging is off.

Maybe you are solving a pressing market problem, but the complainer doesn’t correctly understand your business or recognize your solution’s value. Instead of firing off a snarky response, take an introspective stance and identify ways to reduce confusion. Try highlighting your value proposition, clarifying your marketing message, or updating your website. If this person is confused, it is likely others are as well.

The improvement is already on your roadmap, but this feedback suggests it is more important than you thought. If the market values this improvement above other roadmap items, raise the priority and implement it sooner. If you have specific questions or uncertainties, use the complainer as one of your resources. After all, they expressed a willingness to provide feedback.

– You need to add this to your roadmap.

The complaint brought to light something you hadn’t considered, but should implement. If the market agrees this would add value, add it to your roadmap.

These are just a few examples of finding value in a customer’s complaint. Obviously, you should not make business decisions based solely on one customer’s opinion, but you can use it as a starting point to investigate possible improvements.